It is known in the art to dispense soft frozen product, such as soft ice creams, from machines where the ice cream is produced in, or loaded directly into, a cylinder of the machine. Use of such apparatus involves the disadvantage of having to periodically clean all parts of the machine that have come into contact with the product. This cleaning process, required for hygienic purposes, is usually nightly. The cleaning is slow, laborious and involves removing and replacing parts of the machine, thereby running the risk of misassembly. Ice cream in the machine at cleaning time is wasted.
Dispensing soft frozen product that is stored in and/or delivered in a nippled bag solves the above cleaning problem. Few parts of the dispensing apparatus come into contact with the product. Those that do can be easily reached and cleaned. The product in the machine is not lost in the cleaning process. Furthermore, the quality control of the product is significantly enhanced when it is mixed by the manufacturer of the ingredients and shipped in a bag. Variations in quality caused by the mixing of the product by inexperienced personnel is eliminated.
It is possible to produce a countertop pneumatic dispensing apparatus for soft bagged product that operates on 110 volts, thereby increasing the market the product. The capacity to operate at 110 volts, combined with minimized daily maintenance problems and a great lessening of associated hygenic issues, as discussed above, opens many new locations as potential sites for a dispensing machine. Moreover, as a replacement machine, it will probably offer significant yearly energy savings from costs of operation.
A competitive countertop model can be designed to dispense multiple products, each from two gallon bags. It is possible in such a model to provide for a short product reload and/or change time, in the order of a minute. Each feature adds a competitive advantage to the machine.